The present invention relates to proactive service request management in a broadband network and more specifically to proactive service request management in a xDSL network.
Typically, failures of a network are generally driven by calls by customers who have detected a problem with the network. Once receiving the call, a customer service representative (CSR) attempts to gather as much information as possible about the customer (e.g., telephone number, line features, service profile, inventory, etc.) in an effort to understand the nature of the repair problem.
However, the network may be proactively attempting to fix the problem the customer has detected. Thus, the CSR spends time trying to troubleshoot the problem and also may dispatch a technician to address the problem. Additionally, the problem of the network may have caused multiple other problems causing multiple customer calls to the customer service center. With each call, the CSR goes through the same procedure of collecting information, trouble shooting the problem, and possibly dispatching a technician. Further, all the related problem that are being addressed by the customer service center and technicians are probably caused by one root cause fault. Thus, multiple technicians and CSRs are spending time attempting to resolve all the related faults when resolving the root cause fault would alleviate all related problems in the network.
The situation is further complicated by the network proactively resolving the root cause fault. A technician may not be required to resolve the problem because the network is able to fix the problem. Additionally, the fault may have already been resolved by the network. However, a CSR is not coordinated with the proactive network repair processes resulting in redundant repair efforts. Thus, the repair process becomes unnecessarily costly and time-consuming. Additionally, customer service levels fall because CSRs cannot directly inform the customer how the problem is being resolved.